Preliminary studies suggest that innovative programs could improve prison conditions and outcomes after release.
The U.S. incarceration system is broken. Prisons are largely unable to address the underlying circumstances that can lead to crime, such as mental illness and lack of housing or education. They are rife with violence, overcrowding, understaffing, and inhumane conditions. When people serve time, they are not set up to successfully reintegrate into society.
Roughly 62 percent of people who leave prison are rearrested within three years, and 39 percent return to prison. In 2023, approximately 450,000 people were released from federal and state prisons. By these odds, 280,000 of them will be rearrested before the end of 2026, and 174,000 will be reincarcerated. This is a broken cycle, and it does not make anyone safer — inside or outside prison walls. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Over two and a half years, we visited prisons that are taking a novel approach to incarceration. Our new report documents reforms that correctional leaders and advocates are implementing in prisons throughout the country. Rather than merely locking people up, they seek to improve prison conditions for both incarcerated people and staff, address root causes of crime, and equip people to successfully reenter society.
These reforms, which are happening across a politically and geographically diverse set of states, posit that by focusing on rehabilitation rather than retribution, the U.S. prison system can reduce violence, improve working conditions for staff, and improve post-release outcomes, which would ultimately contribute to better public safety.
What do the numbers say?
Many of these programs are new or limited in scope, so we don’t have long-term effects to measure. But initial studies have shown promising results.
For example, Restoring Promise is an initiative by the Vera Institute of Justice that redesigns housing units and programming for young adults between the ages of 18 and 25, realigning corrections policies and practices with a commitment to human dignity. The program includes peer mentorship, education opportunities, and more time out of cells. Units are meant to mimic the outside world as much as possible to prepare residents to rejoin their communities.
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